"You practice how you play"

Day 3 of Vegas, day 1 of RollerCon

It was hard to fall a sleep last night. A mixture of child like excitement overtook me before falling a sleep. As kid I always had a hard time falling a sleep if I was over excited, you like with Christmas or a Birthday.
My feeling of excitement wasn't any less then when I was a kid. Nervous about my very first challenge bout and just excited about what the day would bring.

At 7 my alarm went off, and the day officially started!! :)
Getting all my stuff together and putting on everything PINK! Yes, pink! Cause I played in a girls vs boys team and of course we were wearing pink!

After having a healthy breakfast me, ChefX and Die went to the hall. And that's when it started to get overwhelming...

The main hall here at RollerCon has several tracks, one big official sized track where the challenge bouts scrimmage are played. It's a sports court floor that is removable. Really cool, but weird to skate on. The big track has wood underneath, which makes the skating pretty nice. But it's a weird combination between being grippy and slippery.

Anyways, to go back to the story, the challenge bout started at 10.00. So warm up was at 9.30.
A challenge bout is not the full time like a normal bout. So it went really quick. Also you don't play with 14 girls, but with 20. So more people get a change to play. Which makes total sense. But it did make the whole thing go by even quicker!
It was lots of fun playing against guys. Even though I am not that experienced I stood my ground. And I didn't do all that bad.


It's kind of hard to see, but that pivot with the pink shirt and blue shorts is me! :)

After the challenge bout we directly got tickets for the next class we wanted to take. Which was 'Baby's got back' a booty blocking class by Quadzilla.

The class mainly focussed on how to use your booty and back while blocking.
The floor was really sucky, because this sports court floor was not on top of wood (like the main track), but on top of carpet. So it was really grippy and hard to skate on. But it was a great class. And I learned new useful skills.


One of the rooms for the classes.


After we got done with the booty block class (which was a hour and a half long) we again got tickets for a Quadzilla class. This time it was the class 'is a bird showing of when it flies?'.
For those who ever saw Quadzilla skate, might guess what this class was about. Quadzilla was basically born on skates and is a phenomenal skater. He can basically do what ever he wants to on skates....
But what this class was about was agility and jumps and stuff like that. But not just how to move your feet, but also really about why and when to move your feet! Therefore if you spin around somebody when they are trying to block you, you understand it's because you are doing everything possible to not get hit and/or smacked to the ground and not because you are showing off!

This two hour class was gonna be rough, and I knew it. I all ready had some problems with my ankles and with that floor being crappy and Quadzilla not training for the fainthearted, I was thinking that I should maybe just not do the class. But then again, I didn't go to RollerCon to sit out, I came here to learn and better myself as a skater.
So I pushed myself to do it. We started with jumping and footwork/agility. I'm not the most agile skater on the planet and I know that it is one of the things I need to work on more then anything.
So when we started with all the footwork it was, well let's say hard for me...
I had to drop out a few times, because of being hurt/exhausted or frustrated. But I didn't quit, I kept going back in. And because of what Quadzilla said to the class, "get out of your comfort zone! - "when you fall down, that means you are learning!" I pushed my self to try harder. And I did. I ended up doing things I would have never thought I could do.
And at the end of the class I was exhausted and incredibly exhilarated!
I went up to Quadzilla and thanked him for the great class. And even though he didn't know, he pushed me to do things I never thought I would be able to do!


Me and Quadzilla.


The rest of the day, I didn't attend any more classes, cause I was exhausted and my ankles were sore.
But I watched some challenge bouts and the black ad white scrimmage at the end of the day.

At night I went to the Pub in the hotel to go to the dance of pants off party and witnessed some American derby girls partying.... Oh my..... Those girls know how to party!! :)
It was great to meet Dr. No-No at the party, the great lovely head ref from Bear City Rollergirls (Berlin).
We hung out and ended up behind a slot machine.....
Oh well....it was a crazy ride. Never gambled before, the free drinks and lights and sounds of Vegas lured me in. :) I met Asa Spades, Whipping Red Siren (both Rotterdam) and Sandra Buttblock (Gent) and we got into the had fun! I won a whole bunch and of course lost all of it too! :p


Me and Asa Spades!

It was a great and overwhelming day. And loved every second of it.

- Furrrocious